Inked Petals
by Memory Wolf
Summary: The common Ink and Petals AU. Lindir works in the new tattoo parlour a few shops down from Elrond's flower shop. They meet and things get set into motion. hot single dad!Elrond I just really wanted elrondir in this AU
1. First meetings

**Hello. So there already isn't enough elrondir out there, and most certainly not enough AUs for them and fluff cuteness. I got excited and wrote this, if somebody does read it i'll add more :)**

 **The common Ink and Petals AU. Lindir works in the new tattoo parlour a few shops down from Elrond's flower shop. They meet and things get set into motion.**  
 **I just really wanted elrondir in this AU**  
 **"Talking"**  
 **'thinking'**

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It wasn't even noon yet and Elrond was already sighing in exasperation while listening to his shop assistants bicker like an old married couple. Elrond was very grateful he had Erestor and Glorfindel in his employment, they were very helpful and efficient in their work, and he was even happy for them for being able to confess their undying love for each other but sometimes working with a pair of lovers meant said lovers having a lover's spat in the middle of _his_ shop.

He cleared his throat loudly, he stared them down with stern eyes when both assistants' looked over at him. "If you want to fight, by all means fight, but please do it outside the shop, I _do_ have work to do and customers to serve."

Erestor and Glorfindel both apologised to their boss with guilty eyes and with a last glare sent to each other, went back to working on opposite sides of the shop. Elrond sighed, this was just like dealing with Elladan and Elrohir when they fought –which was rare but it does happen-, he went back to arranging the flowers on the stand for a customer.

He beckoned to Erestor to continue his work when the bell signalling a customer rang. And here he thought his morning wouldn't get any worse, in walks trouble on legs. The man that walked in had tattoos literally all over every available space on his skin that was visible over his black t-shirt and jeans. 'Well, if he was trouble at least he's a very good looking trouble. Are those even jeans or are they those leggings that teens prefer?' Elrond thought as he gave his customer a concealed once over while welcoming him.

"Welcome. What can I do for you?" Lindir walked nervously into the flower shop he saw on his way to work. Haldir's tattoo parlour opened a week ago, Lindir had had to settle a few problems with the moving of his things from his old house to his new condominium therefore not being able to start work on the opening day itself. The only reason he wasn't fired was because Haldir and him were good friends and if he wasn't being humble, Haldir really needed his steady hands for his parlour.

He had come into the flower shop hoping he could get some thank you flowers for Haldir, or anything at all to be honest, he knew how much his friend liked all things nature, and also because he was late to work. And now he was nervous because he thought florists were supposed to be sweet nice young women, not deviously handsome men with long dark hair and eyes that looked like they had stars in them and not to mention _that body_ , what business did florists have to stay so fit? He took a moment to compile his thoughts, shoving away the images of writhing under the gorgeous man's body, and asked for what he was looking for.

"Um, yes. Do you have flowers that say 'thank you'?" Elrond did not know what to expect but it certainly wasn't the clear hesitant voice that reached his ears. He paused only for a moment. Now that he looked closer, it wasn't as if the face and voice didn't match, he supposed the tattoos had given him a different impression of the clearly fidgeting young man in front of him.

"We do. Is it for a friend or a lover?"

"Ah, a friend." Elrond started listing off the flowers that he had in mind for the man to choose, pointing to the flowers he mentioned, it was only when he stopped to wait for his customer's reply that never came, that he looked back to him. The guy was clearly distraught, his eyes were wide with confusion and an inkling of fear, mouth stuttering, trying to pick a flower. Elrond's bad mood softened at the adorably timid display, he smiled at the young man kindly.

"It's alright, people tend to get overwhelmed with the amount of choices. How about I mix a couple of the choices, would that be alright?" Lindir thanked any gods above that the strikingly good looking man did not grow annoyed with his fidgeting, he couldn't help it, nervousness in front of strangers was a trait he was born with, probably inherited from god knows whoever his parents were.

"Yes, thank you." Elrond could see the man's shoulders visibly sag, he chuckled to himself quietly as he turned to pick the flowers. He never knew a man with that many tattoos could be so adorable, he was like a frightened puppy, he was sure Elladan and Elrohir would have fun teasing the skittish man.

Lindir dug into his pocket to pick up his phone when he felt it vibrating, it was probably Haldir.

"Hello?" " _Lindir! You're late! Where are you?"_ "I'm at the flower shop a few shops up." _"What are you doing there? Are you buying flowers for a new boyfriend? Why haven't I heard of this?"_ "You haven't heard of him because he doesn't exist. And stop whining, I'm getting you a present." _"Awww! Are you getting me flowers Lindir? So thoughtful of you. I'm going to kiss you when you come in!"_ "You can keep your kisses for Celeborn. It's just for helping me out last week, and also because I woke up late this morning." _"Well, you didn't have to. I'd have a spot for you in my shop even if you were a year late. I've got a customer, I'll talk to you later, bye."_

"Was that the receiver of the flowers?" Elrond didn't usually make small talk with his customers while he was wrapping flowers, but he wanted to hear more of that voice and at least talking would help his customer from squirming in discomfort while Elrond wrapped the flowers for him.

Lindir was surprised to hear the man's baritone voice directed at him. "Ah, yeah. He helped me out some bit the last week with moving problems." Lindir walked closer to where the florist was wrapping up dark pink roses and some other flowers he didn't recognise in brown paper. He liked watching the man work, his finger were deft and quick, he had obviously been doing this for a very long time. Lindir felt his cheeks heat up as he thought of other things those fingers could be doing, particularly to him. He banished those thoughts, reprimanding himself in his head.

"Did you just move here?" Elrond asked as he spared a glance up at the man who looked more at ease now, he did spot a light flush on his customer's cheeks, he wondered what that was for.

"Yes, my friend just opened a new tattoo parlour a few shops down from here and he asked me to join in, so here I am."

"Ah, Lothlorien tattoo parlour! I had passed it by a few times. If it weren't for the tattoo designs on the wall I'd have thought it was a café." Truthfully he passed by the shop more than a few times, almost daily, either to get to his car or when he was in his car. It wasn't the usual dark dingy shops most tattoo parlours looked like, in fact it wasn't dark at all. The walls and reception area was mostly made up of white washed wood, the floor was a smooth cement and there was a few green designer sofas probably for customers to use as a waiting area and the inside was well lit with hanging bulbs, all in all, it had a very pleasant ambience.

Lindir chuckled, "Haldir, my friend, is very obsessed with nature, he never agreed with the usual darkness of tattoo shops, hence, he opened his own shop and designed it however he wanted." Lindir could agree with Haldir's choice of décor, but if it weren't for he and Haldir's brothers' insistence that it was impractical to have wooden walls inside the little separate rooms, he was pretty sure Haldir would have quite the mould problem a few years down. They had instead settled on painting the walls a gentle cream colour.

Elrond hummed in reply as he finished off the flower wrappings. "There we go. That would be 75. I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Elrond."

"I'm Lindir." Lindir gave the man a small smile when he handed over the cash. Elrond smiled back at him as he handed back the receipt and flowers. "Thanks for the beautiful flowers. I hope to see you around." Elrond replied in kind and watched as his adorable customer walked out of his shop with his flowers in hand.

Lindir smiled dreamily as he walked towards the tattoo parlour, he really did wish to see the man around, and maybe go on a date or two, a walk in the park, maybe some kissing and necking, Lindir had a stupid grin on his face when he walked into work.

"My flowers!" Haldir exclaimed as Lindir presented it to the fair-haired man over the counter. Haldir thanked his friend and set the flowers down by the vase he had prepared. "What's with that grin on your face?" he asked upon seeing Lindir grinning like a fool.

Lindir coughed into his hand and quickly calmed himself down, "Have you been by the flower shop?"

"Yeah, I haven't been inside though, why?"

Lindir grinned, "The florist is gorgeous." Was all he said as he walked to his assigned tattoo room, ignoring Haldir's shouts for him to further explain. There was nothing to explain. Lindir had just met a beautiful man and he hoped and prayed to whatever entities were present that fate would finally be kind to him and let him get closer to said florist, and maybe, just maybe, he would know love again.

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 **There we go, first chapter :) this is also on AO3 if you want to go there and read it, it's under the same name. I'm petalsofelrondir on tumblr, my elrondir blog :) Thanks. comments spur me on so thanks if you do its also no probs if you dont.**


	2. Surprise Invitation

**I really like muscle tees, my country is hot all year round so you understand. but sadly my unsightly body means i can't wear it, so i have made use of Lindir's lean muscles for sexy muscle tees. Lindir is 26, Elrond 37, Elladan and Elrohir 8, Arwen 5. The age gap seems a bit too big but i don't know, my original idea was for elrond to be 35 and lindir 27, but i dunno, tell me what you think.**

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They don't meet again until two weeks had passed since their first meeting despite Lindir's efforts every morning. Lindir had been diligently walking by Imladris Flowers everyday when he went to work, but every time he peeked in through the glass windows, Elrond doesn't notice him, so he sulks and continues on to work hoping that he would finally be noticed the next day. Their next meeting makes Lindir wonder what the gods were playing at, because usually under such circumstances, meeting the second or third day was unavoidable, but for Lindir it had taken _two_ _weeks_ , if it weren't the gods and fate playing tricks on him, he really didn't know what it was.

Lothlorien Tattoo Parlour was gradually gaining fame in the neighbourhood, granted that there weren't that many people that wanted any part of their bodies pierced or tattooed, but with Haldir and Lindir's name came their regulars from far and wide, just for their skills with the needle. Lindir usually ended work at 9 at night, but today business was slow and they had no more bookings after 5, so Haldir had let Lindir off early, leaving all the walk ins to their new hire, Feren.

Lindir leaned back against the side of the lift, sighing in delight at the cold comfort the metal sides offered to his exposed skin. Today had been particularly sunny, he had opted for a faded black muscle tee, displaying the tattoos on his sides all the way to his waist in all their glory, and white washed ripped jeans, plenty of holes for airy breeze. He supposed going to work with slippers wasn't exactly professional, but as long as he was hygienic then who cared what he wore. He shoved at the hair that was falling out of his high ponytail, annoyed that it was bothering his eyes. He sighed as he mentally prepped himself for a trip to the gym, he had been neglecting going since he moved, if he put it off anymore, whatever little muscles he had was going to start to disappear.

He shuffled his feet heading to his unit. He didn't know if that day was particularly sunny -he really preferred the rain- because the gods were suddenly in a cruel mood, or maybe it was just him that was really disappointed for being ignored two weeks straight by the handsome florist, he supposed it was a little of both, but what happened next may just pick him up off his slump.

He looked up as his neighbour's door opened. He had never seen anyone go in or out of the unit next to his, he would have assumed it was empty if not for the noise of children that passed from their balcony to his every night. To say he froze on the spot would not be an exaggeration, for the face that appeared before his was that of whom he had wanted to meet most for the past two weeks.

"Ah." Elrond paused in front of his doorway, staring into the face of his adorable customer from before. "Hello. Lindir right?" He was amused to see the tattooed man freeze for a moment before a flush came to his cheeks and he replied him.

"Yes. Elrond right? You live here?" God, Lindir wanted a bus to run over him. Obviously the man lived there, he was right at his doorstep for goodness sake. He suddenly became very self-conscious of how he looked with his hair haphazardly thrown up and dressed like some hobo, he couldn't figure out if this was a good day or a bad day anymore.

"Yes. This is my unit." Elrond gestured into the open doorway. "Do you live here too?" He looked to the young man who looked as if he wanted the ground to part and swallow him up.

"Yeah, I live right next door." He managed to give a chuckle, amused at the fact that they had never met until that day, a full two weeks after he moved in.

Elrond's eyebrows rose, it was curious indeed, that they had never met. He knew that someone new had moved in but he had never expressly went to greet his new neighbour, and they never seemed to leave or enter their units at the same time. "I wonder why it is that we have never met."

Lindir shrugged, "Maybe we both have bad timing." And speaking of bad timing, Lindir's stomach grumbled in protest of being empty. He flushed a bright red and placed a hand on his stomach as if doing so would make it shut up.

Elrond looked down in surprise at the sound of hunger from his neighbour, then he laughed. "I take it that you haven't eaten dinner." He watched, amused, as the man with pink tinted cheeks shook his head shyly. Then an idea came to him. "This might be sudden, but would you like to have dinner with me? It's only my family of four. It'll be a dinner to get to know our neighbour." He encouraged the young man to accept.

Lindir was distraught. He was still processing the invitation to dinner when another fact had sprung upon his face. He never expected Elrond to already be married and have already fathered children, it was sort of a blow to his heart because of the attraction and hope he had to the older man. It was when he noticed that the silence was way too long that he stuttered his answer. "Uh, sure, I mean- thanks, that is, if your wife doesn't mind, it being sudden that is, unexpected dinner guest."

Elrond gave a slight smile to the stuttering man, the mention of his blessed passed wife saddened him, but he already had five years to deal with his anguish, he had already accepted the fact and decided to live on despite it, for his children. "It's only me and my children. They would be more than delighted at a new friend."

Lindir saw the shadow that fell over the florist's eyes, combined with his words, Lindir could only come to two conclusions, and both of them made him feel absolutely horrid for having mentioned it. "If they don't mind." Lindir gave the man a kind smile.

"Delightful. Now, I'm heading down to the stores to get some eggs, we're having fried spaghetti with bacon and eggs tonight." Elrond turned to shut his door and lock it.

Lindir then realised that he smelt like soured milk, having walked to and back from work under the hot sun. "I'll just go and get cleaned up and come over." He grinned sheepishly at the florist who laughed when he saw the state the man was in. Elrond shooed Lindir with his hands and they parted ways.

Lindir stood under his shower spray, thinking over the conversation he had a few minutes ago. He was quite sure he could cancel the thought that he might ever ever, however impossibly tiny his chance was, to get the man, because he was married, no matter if the wife had passed or was divorced, he was married-or ex-married- to a lady and he had kids. Maybe he was bi, his mind whispered to him. Lindir laughed out loud at that. With the luck he had, he was pretty sure the gods or fate wouldn't allow it.

He sighed as he leaned his head on the glass wall of his shower, he supposed, even if he can't find love, being friends with Elrond would be good enough. The florist seemed like a nice person, not to mention they were neighbours, being on friendly terms with your neighbour was good right? Yes. Definitely. It wasn't that he just wanted to see his face more and get to know him more, it was purely because they were neighbours, so baking for him and buying little gifts during his overseas trips were nothing out of the ordinary. Yes. Yes.

Lindir banged his head on the glass. Who was he kidding, he was literally having daydreams of dating the man, seriously, he really ought to stop this now. "Friends." Lindir told himself later on in the mirror after his shower. "Only friends." He scolded at himself.

He dried off, did all his moisturising -tattoos don't look good on dried skin, mind you- and stepped out of the bathroom. Going over to his closet, he wondered what neighbours wore to eat at each other's houses. Maybe a t-shirt and shorts would do. Would it? Maybe something more smart casual. Maybe a flannel, but it was _so hot_. Did Elrond use his air conditioning? What if he didn't and Lindir sweated like a pig in his long sleeved flannel? Letting out a sound of frustration, Lindir grabbed a hipster short that was on the top of his shorts pile, it was sky blue, and a black sleeveless hoodie. He paused. Would the kids be afraid of his tattoos? Lindir groaned.

He groaned again when he looked to the wall clock to find that he had been standing stark naked in his closet for fifteen minutes, five more minutes and it would be half an hour since Elrond's invitation for dinner. He quickly slipped his hoodie over his head and pulled on the shorts. A quick glance in the mirror and tying his hair half up later, he was out the door.

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 **Tell me what you want to read later on, like fluff wise. Comments are very welcomed and spur me on to write :)**


	3. Dinner Time

**Thanks for all your comments! Reading them makes me want to write more for this fic :) I update fast because i'm currently not occupied with anything, waiting for college, plenty of time on my lazy hands. It gets a little sad at the end but no worries, happy times will come later. :) Goodness, having to put the html for cursive in one by one is tiring, i hope i didn't miss out any.**

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Lindir now stood outside Elrond's door. After giving himself a pep talk and banishing all inappropriate thoughts, allowing himself a few deep breaths, he rang the bell. He only had to wait a few moments, hearing muttered shouts through the door, and the door opened to Elrond with his hair gathered at the base of his neck, a brown apron with tiny galloping horses on it over a fitting black shirt and cream brown sweatpants. Lindir suddenly felt over-dressed.

"Come in, welcome to my humble abode." Elrond laughed to himself as the lean man's eyes went over his getup, he was feeling fairly casual, it wasn't as if he looked like a slop, oh no, he knew fairly well how good he looked in his shirt, and for some reason he wanted to make the young man blush, it was very adorable.

"Um, your kids, you don't mind the tattoos right? I mean, it's okay if you want me to cover up or something. For the kids. The tattoos showing I mean. Right." Lindir personally would never do this for anyone else, if they didn't want their kids seeing his tattoos then he had no business being friends with parents of said kids anyway. But well, Lindir _really_ wanted to be friends with Elrond, so somehow violating his personal code was somehow okay because the man standing in front of him was a really _really_ hot single father that cared for his body and had beautifully mesmerising eyes and sold flowers _God Damn!_ Lindir really needed to calm down his internal monologue, he barely knew the man _for Valar's sake!_

Elrond waved his hand in front of his face and set his features as if to tell the shorter man 'Pfft! As if I care.' "No no not at all." He smiled when Lindir let out a breath and smiled back thankfully. He shifted his body to allow the tattooed man to enter, he locked the door then lead Lindir in.

Elrond hadn't even needed to give Lindir a tour of his duplex, it had the mirrored layout of Lindir's own duplex unit. The first thing he laid eyes on was the sofa in shades of cream brown, soft velvet material, it sat in front of a square low profile coffee table that was settled upon light grey shaggy carpet. There was a black marble rectangle dining table further back, surround by cream coloured chairs. Further back was the balcony. To the side of the dining table was the white island table and four bar stools, behind said island was an open kitchen. The unit was covered in bright light bouncing off three white walls and one cream coloured one, which the telly was attached to. Lindir had a feeling cream brown was a favourite of Elrond's.

Lindir glanced over the room, then his eyes landed on three pair of grey ones directed at him. "Kids, this is Lindir. Lindir, this is Elladan, Elrohir and Arwen." Lindir gave what he hoped was a pleasant smile to Elrond's children. Lindir wasn't very good with kids, having been closing himself off his whole childhood, he never knew what to do when faced with children, other than smile pleasantly at them that is. He gave a little wave, "Hello."

Upon hearing his voice, Arwen ran to hide behind her brothers, as her father was right beside the stranger with many drawings on his arms. "Kids, be nice to Lindir." Elrond gave a little wiggle of his finger before he dashed to the pot that was bubbling over. Lindir stared at the children who stared back.

He sighed and sat down cross legged on the soft rug. "It's nice to meet you, Elladan, Elrohir, Arwen." He smiled as cutely as he could, kids like cute right?

"Are you friends with Ada?" One of the twins asked, they had to be twins, Elrond hadn't even pointed out whom was whom. "Yes I am. I bought a beautiful bouquet of flowers from your Ada once." Lindir wondered if the kids understood his words, how was his vocabulary when he was around their age? He really couldn't remember, he had barely spoken to anyone when he was that age.

"Ada's flowers are pretty!" Arwen exclaimed with joy from behind her brothers. Lindir smiled at the sweet little girl, "Yes they are." When silence once again fell over them Lindir looked down onto his hands, then a thought came to him. "You wanna see something?" He asked all three of them in general, but it was little Arwen who answered. "Whats it?"

"Flowers." Lindir twisted his body around, so the back of his right shoulder was displayed to the children. He pointed at his water-colour tattoo of a tea rose and yellow rose entwined together, he had gotten that with Haldir, it was a symbol of their friendship, that no matter what, they would always be the best of friends. Arwen crept out from behind her brothers to take a closer look.

She gasped when she saw it. "Why'd you draw on you? Ada always say no!" Lindir chuckled then leaned in closer to the girl, "You can do it when you're grown up, like your Ada and I, okay?" he mock whispered to her. Arwen's eyes widened, then she giggled a high pitch. Lindir then noticed that the twins had both came closer to him, inspecting his tattoos. Lindir laughed inwardly, who knew his tattoos that he had almost covered up was the way to go with entertaining children?

'What's this mean?" One of the twins pointed to the tattoo he had gotten from a visit to Taiwan. "This is my name, in mandarin." Before he could further explain, the other twin was pointing to another tattoo, asking for an explanation. It was a quote wrapped around his right wrist in cursive writing. "It means 'thank you for the venom' in french."

Elrond smiled as he heard his children's curious questions about Lindir's tattoos. He had never actually explained the concept of tattoos to them, mainly because he was waiting for Arwen to grow enough until she could understand, but also because the topic never came up. He moved the spaghetti from the pan into separate plates, "Dinner time." With his one call, it scattered the kids from Lindir's side as the twins rushed to the kitchen to take their own plates while Elrond took his and Arwen's.

Lindir waved away the apologetic look from Elrond who have raised both his hands, showing that it was occupied to take his plate. He went to the kitchen and picked up the plate along with a fork. If he had to be honest, it smelt delicious and in no way dissuaded his heart and mind from falling more for the man he barely knew. A handsome man who could cook, what's not to like?

Dinner was a quiet affair, the silence punctuated with giggles from Arwen who, more than once, wiggled strands spaghetti around like worms. Lindir laughed just to amuse her, he stopped when Elrond told him it encouraged Arwen to make more of a mess than she was already making. Lindir felt bad then and spent the rest of dinner with Elrond trying to coax Arwen to eat her food rather than play with them. Elladan and Elrohir were well behaved, but Lindir had a feeling that the reason Arwen was in such a playful mood was because of her brothers. Lindir definitely did not see the faces they made when both Lindir and Elrond weren't looking.

When the kids were actually eating their dinner quietly, they made small talk. Lindir had told Elrond where he was from, how he got to do what he was doing now –his love for art was unrivalled- they found out they both had a deep love for books. And if Lindir took this opportunity to tell Elrond he had one of the rooms in his unit converted into a small library and had invited him over someday, it was only because they were on the topic and having friends with the same hobbies was fun. Yes, very fun indeed. Definitely not because he wanted to invite the man over for wine, and also to get his number.

He stayed to look after the twins while Elrond bathed a messy Arwen and got her ready for sleep. It had been awkward at first, until they had asked what he did everyday at work. Wanting to sum it up to something eight year olds could understand, he had simply said, "I poke holes in people with needles and put paint on their skin that doesn't come off." Which had turned into a discussion of blood and medical stuff that Lindir didn't think eight year olds were supposed to know of.

"How many do you have?" they pointed to his piercings. "Ten." He didn't even have to think, he always kept count, waiting to add one more to the count. "But there's only eight." Elladan said as he stared at Lindir's ears. Lindir finally was able to get their separate names, but whether they told the truth or not remained to be seen.

"Ah yes, there's only eight in my ears." He ran his fingers down both his ears, feeling the metals of his earrings. They asked where the other two were. Lindir laughed, "You're not old enough to know yet."

"Not old enough to know what?" Elrond asked as he heard the last of the younger man's answer. He had put Arwen to sleep with a story about elves and horses, his daughter really loved happy endings. He noticed Lindir's cheek tint in pink before he bit his lips and coughed, he wondered what they were talking about to evoke such a reaction.

Lindir coughed into his hand. He had a very vivid fantasy of telling Elrond just where his last piercings were and there was a lot of moaning involved and _oh no stop thinking_. He really should stop this daydreaming wherever he was thing, and also his big crush on the single father. "Nothing much."

Elrond raised his eyebrows at Lindir in disbelief but let the matter slide anyways. "Boys, it's time for bed." His sons whined protests about not being sleepy but one glare from him sent both running up the stairs to their room. He heard the clear voice laugh at that, it brought a smile to his face.

"Would you like to stay for some wine?" Elrond offered. He didn't feel like parting from the young man yet, he wanted to talk more, get to know Lindir and the little things in his life, his hobbies, likes and dislikes, he was just so interested for no reason at all.

"A glass of wine on the balcony under the moonlight, how romantic." Lindir didn't know where his courage came from and he really wish it had never come in the first place, that was really not something he should say on their first _neighbourly_ dinner.

Elrond felt a little spark at that, he quickly laughed it away. "It's relaxing to sit back and talk with you, is all." He explained, trying not to imply anything untoward to a man 11 years his junior, he really shouldn't. But Lindir looked at him with such adoration that no matter how much the younger man tried to hide it he could still see it. But he could also do nothing about it.

He liked Lindir, even though it was only the second time that they had spent any amount of time together. He liked talking to him, teasing him, laughing with him, seeing him blush, it gave him a feeling he hadn't felt in years, ever since Celebrian passed. But he also had his duty as a father to tell Lindir that he shouldn't be looking at a man who already had three children like that, that he should go after someone young without anything to tie him down.

Lindir moved his gaze away from Elrond's eyes when he saw the conflicted feelings flicker across those grey orbs, he didn't want to hear it from the man himself. Suddenly he felt sombre and the idea of whatever they had hanging over their heads while they sip wine and talk of simple things wasn't that appealing anymore. "It's getting late, we both have work tomorrow." He stood up, waiting for Elrond to do the same so he could politely leave the older man's house.

Elrond sighed, he recognised a rejection for what it was, he then nodded, "Yes, I suppose it is time to turn in. Good night Lindir, I'll see you around." Elrond gave him a gentle smile as he saw him to the door.

Lindir turned around, wanting to say something more. He felt as if it were lacking, like there was something more to this than just a mere goodbye and good night and maybe he should tell him about this thing that was slowly building between them, that if Elrond could feel it and if he wanted to they could explore it, Lindir needed to know, but he found he could say nothing, so he stuck to the mere goodbye and good night.

That night, Lindir tossed and turned on his bed, wondering if perhaps his gaze lingered a little too long and maybe he looked a little too adoringly at Elrond. Did he know? He had to know. Lindir could see it in his eyes, as if he was dealing with something he himself was struggling with. Maybe he was finding a way to break it to him that his feelings were not returned and he was disturbed by the way Lindir looked at him. Was Elrond that cruel to say that? Lindir didn't know, he hadn't even spent twenty-four hours with the man. They haven't even started to discuss all the deep things in their heart yet. And maybe they wouldn't. But Lindir hoped they would. Because he wanted desperately for something to happen, not caring that he was much older than him and had kids. Because he had already fallen too deep to be able to climb out by himself anymore. He was well and truly fucked.

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 **As always, comments are loved and i may not reply to everyone but i love all comments all the same :)**


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